mamster

FYI, I ate some of seawakim's chocolates last night, and they were very high quality--great job with the tempering and molding. I especially liked the coffee liqueur filling.

I'm glad you printed it. macrosan, do you really believe scientific truth is a fantasy, or is this just something you say to spark conversation? Scientists make mistakes. Some scientists (like some journalists, some lawyers, some bureaucrats) are corrupt. I work around scientists at a large research university, however, and above all I would describe them as careful. They're careful in their laboratory work and even more careful to avoid making pronouncements without making very clear what they don't know. If you read any scientific paper in a reputable journal--and I've said this before--you'll find the description of an experiment (with enough detail for you to recreate the experiment), the results, and an interpretation of the results with some possible explanations of why the experiment turned out the way it did. That's how you look for truth. Usually this process goes on for years and years with only cloudy understanding of what's really going on. That makes a terrible news story. Scientific journals are great sleep aids. So it's common for the press to report that "scientists discovered X" as if it's now unassailable truth. Some scientists play into this. Many don't. So what would a responsible story about soy look like? It would be much less certain than anything you'd see from an anti-soy group or the soy lobby. It's hard for me to imagine any reasonable person looking at the experiments and studies that have been done on soy so far and forming a firm opinion that soy is either a panacea or a poison. (Perhaps this is just my bias, though.) So we agree, macrosan, that people who expect much certainty in their lives should expect repeated disappointment. But say you're an anti-soy person, like an employee of the Weston A. Price foundation. Is there anything in the Planck article that would shake your certainty? Doesn't it read a bit like a press release? Would you guess from reading the article that the "soap-like emulsifier" used to make margarine is lecithin, the same emulsifier found in egg yolks? Scientific truth is a fantasy? Suppose your doctor told you that he thought casts were a conspiracy by the plaster industry and that the best way to heal a broken arm was to give it as much exercise as possible. Would you argue that maybe he's got a point? What could you have possibly meant, then?

Can you give an example of fish or mammalian genes inserted into plants?

The raw-foodists will point out that we didn't evolve eating cooked food either, but this isn't going to make me give up bread. In Spain, isn't the motto "A little ham good, a lot of ham better"? The Planck article sounds to me like the work of a person desperately searching for answers. You hear the tone a lot, in many different contexts. I'm not accusing Planck of being any of these things, but you often hear it from recovering addicts and from people with debilitating diseases. It's the mind grasping for certainty. There's a guy who does infomercials claiming that all human diseases are caused by calcium deficiency, and if you order his calcium supplements, you will enjoy perfect health forever. Wouldn't it be awesome if this were true? I don't believe him, but I understand why people do. The real story of human nutrition, like everything else about human life, is complicated. I often argue that Americans are obese because of cars. Some people chalk it up to carbohydrates, or trans fats. Surely we're all at least partly wrong. Along with the drive to blame a variety of problems on a single cause is the need to see any given thing as unequivocally good or bad. What if soy is good for you and bad for you at the same time? What if it protects against certain diseases and raises your risk for others? What if all foods are like that? It would be mud in the eye of people looking for a quick fix, but would it really be a surprise, given what you know about the pros and cons of everything else in modern life?

A little Thai oyster sauce (such as Mae Krua brand) would be good here.

The dough hook rules. If I were a pirate, I would cut off my hand and replace it with a dough hook. The other hand I would replace with a whisk. I would work in the galley and say "arrr, hands off me mise en place."

"Soya" and "soy" refer to the same plant. Most of the soybeans grown in the US (about 3/4) are genetically engineered (almost all of this is Roundup-Ready soybeans). The rest are not genetically engineered and are still called soybeans. All of the studies that I know of that purport to show that MSG is dangerous were done on rats. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but a typical experimental dose would be 4mg/g body weight for several days. For a 150-pound human, that would mean ingesting over half a pound of pure MSG for several days in a row. I have no doubt that this would cause ill effects. The dose makes the poison. Concluding from such an experiment that MSG should be avoided would be akin to noting that too much iron makes people sick and we should therefore avoid iron in our diet. In fact, the exact same thing happened to salt: it has long been known that megadoses of sodium chloride are harmful and that some people's blood pressure is salt-sensitive. This turned into a recommendation that everybody limit their salt consumption. There is no difference between natural and added glutamate. I have a yogurt container full of MSG in my cupboard, and while I don't use it often, in judicious amounts in can subtly improve a variety of dishes. Given the chaotic state of nutrition research, I think the best argument is this: the new soy products taste like shit. (I have an absolutely vivid memory of the first time I tasted soy milk. It will haunt me forever.) Even if they are better for you, which they may or may not be, is it worth adding a couple of years to your life if you have to eat shit?

Okay, maybe there's specific weirdness with the Scharffen-Berger, or maybe I screwed up measuring the sugar.

Yes, it can. The Hearthkit is basically a big hunk of clay. Stick a big hunk of clay in your oven and two things will happen: (1) It will take longer to preheat. The time it takes your oven to preheat is mostly spent heating the walls of the oven, not the air. (2) When the heating element goes off, the oven will cool more slowly. That's because you've got a big-ass hunk of clay in there radiating heat. Even a pizza stone will help smooth out the temperature fluctuations; the Hearthkit is just heavier.

My review did praise the chocolates. This should be exciting to watch.

I haven't done another batch of bagels yet, JF, or any bread in the last couple of days, because I ran out of the supermarket yeast I'd been using and am still waiting for my pound of yeast from King Arthur. I did, you'll be glad to hear, take that as a signal to try making a sourdough starter. I don't think it's growing yet. If there are any microbes in there, I think they're laughing at me.

Lemongrass is hardcore, Col., by which I mean it's a hard, fibrous, woody core. If you put chunks of it in something, you're not supposed to eat them. What I would do if you want to add fresh lemongrass flavor to your curry is slice some lemongrass thinly and pound it into the curry paste (there's already some in there to start with, but more won't hurt). I can't remember whether you got that Thai mortar and pestle at City Kitchens, but if you did, bust it out.

I'm going to be at my brother's music school graduation, so you will not have the opportunity to see my mad knife skillz, but go all Iron Chef on my behalf.

Brita-filtered Seattle tap water, drunk out of the skull of my enemies.

Has anyone mentioned that you know you're in a cool restaurant when the prices are in whole numbers with no trailing decimal places, just a decimal point? Like: goat bisque 7. saddle du cheval 23. Either they're cool or they want to be cool.

My posterior awaits your report.

The ones I get at the supermarket are usually quite good, but if yours are not, I have two words: farmer's market. If you don't have a farmer's market, I have four words: start a farmer's market.

Yeah, the skin is not such a big deal. But if the peppers are overcooking in the time it takes to char them (I have an electric stove too), you're probably not getting them close enough to the element. Almost touching the element is good. I find it takes 5-6 minutes to blacken mine, and they're barely cooked in that time.

Ellen, thanks for posting these awesome reports. I want some of that bacon.

The bagels I made were plain, so it's possible I have a romanticized conception of what consitutes a flavorful bagel and mine were fine. I didn't put any flavoring in the poaching water, just baking soda. I assume this is an area of much controversy. Sesame is my favorite bagel, so I'll put some seeds on next time, but I'm also quite fond of a good sourdough bagel like they sell at H&H on a good day, and this gives me a good excuse to play around with wild yeast.

That's excellent, JFLinLA. Thanks!

I'm still baking my way through The Bread Baker's Apprentice and thought I would get in touch with my roots and make bagels. It was easy and fun, and the results were pretty good: nice-looking bagels with a hole (I hate it when you get commercial bagels where the hole has swelled shut), and the texture is perfect. It was refreshing to work with a stiff dough after doing a bunch of rustic breads made from dough soup. The only problem with these bagels is the flavor: I didn't get enough. I can think of a couple of ideas: 1. Retard longer. These went nine hours in the fridge. Reinhard says they can ferment up to three days, I think, so I could let them sit another day. I have no idea whether this would make a difference. 2. Am I using the right kind of malt powder? I went down to a homebrewing shop and got a bag of maltodextrin. The guy there assured me that this is the same as diastatic barley malt powder. Is this true? Would malt syrup taste better? 3. Bake longer for deeper browning. It seems like much of the flavor of a bagel comes from the crumb, though, and my crumb has no flavor. 4. Add cinnamon and raisins. This is cheating. Any tips would be appreciated. My bagels are already better than the steamed bagels from Noah's, but I'd like to press onward toward a bagel that I could carry to a meeting and slyly drop that I made them, and make everyone say, "Wow, that guy is a geek, but a talented geek."

Kale for your Cornbread 1 T vegetable oil or bacon grease 1 bunch kale (about 1 lb) 1/2 medium onion, minced 1/2 tsp curry powder (this seems like a reasonable use of commercial curry powder to me. I use Penzeys Hot) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 c water 1. Strip the leaves of the kale from the stems with a sharp knife and slice the leaves into 1/4" shreds. Discard the stems or reserve for another use. 2. Heat the oil or grease over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the onion and cook until it begins to brown. 3. Add the kale, curry powder, salt, and water. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook 20-25 minutes, while the cornbread is in the oven. Serve hot, letting the juices moisten the cornbread while you're eating. Keywords: Side, Condiment, The Daily Gullet ( RG505 )

Southern Cornbread Note: Of course, it's hard to argue the Puritanism of this recipe when it has cheese and bacon it in, but the Puritans lived in the North, right? If this is your first experience with Southern cornbread, leave out the bacon bits and cheese, and commune with corn. 2 strips bacon 4 oz white flint cornmeal (see note) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cream of tartar 3/4 c buttermilk 1 egg 1 oz cheddar cheese, grated 1. Fry the bacon in a skillet until crisp. Pour 1 tbsp of the fat through a sieve into an 8" cast-iron skillet. You could, of course, cook the bacon in the cast iron, but I find it leaves behind microscopic bacon nodules, which burn. 2. Place the cast-iron skillet in the oven and set the temperature to 425 F. 3. Chop or crumble the bacon into small bits. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk the egg and buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup. 4. When your oven claims to be preheated, give it five more minutes with the skillet inside. Pour the liquid ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients and give a few turns with a whisk to combine. Let sit for one minute. 5. Remove the skillet from the oven and slosh the grease around carefully to coat the bottom and sides. Pour the batter into the skillet and return to the oven. 6. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and invert immediately onto a plate. Bisect the cornbread parallel to the plate like a layer cake. Remove the top layer, add a layer of cheese, and replace the layer of bread. Serve immediately, crisp side up (it doesn't look as nice but stays crispier). Acquiring white flint cornmeal: Morgan's Mills (207-785-4900), of Maine, has five-pound bags for just under $20 with USPS shipping. Keywords: Side, Bread, American, The Daily Gullet ( RG504 )

Yankee Cornbread Serves 4. 1-1/2 c yellow cornmeal 1-1/2 c flour 2/3 c sugar 1-1/2 tsp salt (or 1 tbsp kosher salt) 1 T baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 stick butter, melted 1/2 c milk 1-1/2 c buttermilk 2 eggs, beaten 1 jalapeno pepper, minced 4 oz corn kernels (fresh, frozen, or canned) 3 oz cheddar cheese, grated 1/4 c minced scallions 2 T chopped cilantro 1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. 2. Combine the first six ingredients in a large bowl. 3. In another bowl, combine the butter, buttermilk, milk, and eggs, and turn with a whisk until combined. Pour over the dry ingredients all at once and stir until just combined. Add the jalapeno, corn kernels, cheese, scallions, and cilantro and again stir until just combined. 4. Pour the mixture into five buttered mini-loaf pans. I use foil pans from the grocery store, which makes the bread easy to transport and give away. The pans are about 6"x3.5"x2". Bake 25 minutes and serve Keywords: Side, Bread, American, The Daily Gullet ( RG503 )